The governor of Kaduna State, Dr Nasir El-Rufai, has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari on the redesign of the naira notes saying the implementation of the policy within a short time could adversely affect the fortunes of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 presidential election.
The governor stated this in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday.
He dissociated the party and its presidential candidate, Mr. Bola Tinubu, from some of the policies of the Buhari administration.
He also said all the blame for the redesigning of the naira should not be heaped on the CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, stressing that Buhari has a history of redesigning the currency with the intent to check illicit funds.
He noted that the naira redesign is a good intention but frowned at the timing of its implementation which, according to him, “does not make any political, economic sense,”
He also faulted the administration for failing to implement the removal of petroleum subsidy and restructuring of the country, noting that those actions are inconsistent with the manifesto of the APC.
He alleged that some fifth columnists within the presidential villa who lost at the presidential primaries are bent on making the party lose at the poll.
“This is not the policy of our candidate (Bola Tinubu); this is the policy of fifth columnists. They want to bring us down; they want to bring this country down.
“We have held the conversation (subsidy removal) at the National Economic Council. It was Buhari himself that made the decision that this subsidy will hurt the poor. It is not about national conversation. Everyone agrees but the president took that decision– that is why our presidential candidate, in the same political party, says I will remove it. It is not a party position. It is a personal decision of the president.
“The people in the villa—most of them are not (members of our party). I believe there is. I believe there are elements within the villa that want us to lose the elections because they did not get their way. They have their candidate, but their candidate did not win the primaries. I believe they are trying to get us to lose the election. They are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right.
“People are blaming the Central Bank Governor, but you have to go back to the first outing of the president. He did this—Buhari /Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with the view to catching those with illicit funds. It is a good intention, very clean intention but doing it at this time just does not make any political, economic sense,” he said.
Recall that El-Rufai is not the first top ranking member of the APC to find fault in the naira redesign.
Recently, Tinubu alleged that redesigning of N200, N500 and N1, 000 currency notes by the CBN as well as the current petrol scarcity were targeted at him.
The allegation caused unease in the presidential villa and within the party. Consequently, Tinubu, alongside three northern APC governors paid a nocturnal visit to Buhari in Katsina to mend political fence.
